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Slaughtercult: Exhumed live at Riot Room 10/01

California’s Exhumed might just be the best death metal/grindcore band going strong today not named Carcass. And although Carcass just released their comeback album, Exhumed has filled the void left in their absence for almost 15 years. With a discography that only gets stronger and stronger with each release, the amount of energy and precision in their live shows is unmatched. Launching into the one-two punch of “Sickened” and “Necrocracy” from their latest album, the band started fast and heavy and kept it that way through the entire performance. The band, led by one of the best in the business in vocalist/shredder Matt Harvey, touched on most of the expansive discography, including “Limb from Limb” and “Casketkrusher” from their debut album “Gore Metal,” and even the rarity in “Torso” from their split release with underground gore metal titans Hemdale. This is where Exhumed really shined because this is dissonant, nasty, brutal goregrind, but the songs always have a definite groove underlying the madness on top of it.

But with Exhumed, it’s always more than just a musical performance. During “Limb From Limb,” someone jumped up on stage. It wasn’t anyone from the crowd, it was someone in bloody doctor’s scrubs revving an actual chainsaw in time with the music and pretending to chop the limbs off the crowd. The Riot Room stunk of gasoline for the rest of the night, but it was a sight to behold. Guitarist Bud Burke “passed out” midway through his guitar solo eliciting another trip to the stage from the demented doctor who couldn’t revive him with his gored-out defribulators, but of course pouring an entire bottle of beer into the mouth of the dazed guitarist caused him to rise and finish his solo like he never stopped in the first place. It’s the fun-loving attitude couple with their dedication to quality brutal metal music that makes Exhumed such a good band. Everything was on fire – the band’s performance, the sound quality, everything. They might just burn down the next venue they play in.

Opening the show were two of the area’s best death metal bands. First up was Marasmus, right in the middle of the recording of their upcoming EP, which they played several tracks off of. Marasmus is a freight train carrying steamrollers crashing into a brick wall – heavy and loud. They veered slightly into the Devourment-esque slam riffing, but most of Marasmus’ sound is solid old-school brutal death metal worship, and not too many other bands do it better. The band leading into Exhumed was none other than Troglodyte, the world’s best masked Bigfoot-themed deathgrind band. Taking cues from the catchy grind stylings of Origin and Cephalic Carnage, Troglodyte has crafted song after song of meaty riffs and melodies lumped on top of some of the heaviest music around. Vocalist Jeff Sisson paced around the Riot Room like, well, Bigfoot as he launched his mask’s dreads all around from headbanging so much. Even with song titles like “Murderous Bi-Pedal Hominid Rampage (Where are My Legs?)” and “Minnesota Icemann Cometh,” the band is 100% on-point, which is quite a feat considering how technical each member of the band is. Trogloyte is poised to explode, and the sooner it happens – the better.

Exhumed setlist:

Sickened
Necrocracy
In The Name Of Gore
Forged In Fire (Forged In Flame)
Casketkrusher
Coins Upon The Eyes
Torso
Limb From Limb
Dysmorphic
All Guts, No Glory
As Hammer To Anvil
Decrepit Crescendo
The Rotting
Guitar Solo
The Matter Of Splatter